Manitoba is experiencing the driest first half of the year in over a century.

The amount of precipitation that Manitoba has experienced this year is over 60% less than our normal amounts.

Natalie Hasell, of Environment Canada, says that this has been a growing pattern inevitably leading to this result since the beginning of winter.

Hassell says throughout the cold winter of 2018-2019, Manitoba experienced a high-pressure ridge.

"Normally, with high-pressure ridges, you get clear skies, or very few clouds, and often calmer winds, which allows a lot of the heat from the surface to escape."

This lack of heat from the ridge has resulted in the current lack of precipitation. Hassel says, "You can't have really cold temps and precipitation because you don't have clouds. We were in a pattern that allowed this situation to repeat itself many times. So, a lot of the time was clear skies, very cold, and no precipitation and then we continue having below normal temperatures."

Hassell says Environment Canada has been tracking the decreasing trend of precipitation in Manitoba and reports, "Starting in this January, Winnipeg reported 5.7 millimetres of precipitation in January, where the average or normal - according to the 1981-2010 Canadian Climate Normal Data - we would have received 19.9 millimetres on average in January. ... June was 25 millimetres where normally we would get 90 millimetres."

Hassell says, "We're not even at 40% of what we normally have gotten for the six months. ... In six months we got what we would normally get for the month of June by itself."

Effects of the dry weather

Hassel notes that there will be several results to the lack of precipitation in Manitoba.

Firstly, Hassell says, "I would suspect that crops are not getting the water that they need."

While the crops may be planted, they will either not receive the hydration they need before harvest or farmers will have to pay for water that they would normally receive for free form nature. Both have costly effects on agriculture.

Secondly, Hassell notes the number of fires already experiences in Winnipeg and throughout the province: "We have seen wild fries already this season. If conditions continue to be dry, we are not going to improve the situation with respect to the risk of wildland fires. So that is certainly another potentially costly event. A lot of fires, at this time of year, would be caused by lightning."

While some may hope for large thunderclouds, full of water, to come rolling through the prairies, Hassell argues that they may not be the saving grace they are assumed to be.

Hassell says, "You would think, 'Okay, lightning means we have thunderstorms, thunderstorms can dump a lot of water.' ... Right now, any thunderstorms we're going to get are not really going to be getting a whole lot of moisture from local sources. So you might get the lightning strikes, but not get rain. So that will just cause more forest fires as opposed to fewer forest fires."

The third effect. Hassell says, will hit close to home: "The additional issue is drinking water. If our basins are dry, if our water tables are low, rivers levels are love, lake levels are low, drinking water basins will also be low. "

Most drinking basins are regulated, but Hassell says, "If it continues to be dry, and if the watershed from which that basin draws water - if that basin remains dry and that watershed remains dry - the people downstream who are depending on it might be out of luck.

"Water is a tricky thing. It's very rare that we have exactly what we need. We either get too much or too little and right now we are looking at too little."